In my last session, the PCs had a bit of a falling out (5 of the PCs were mad because the other player killed the party's clockwork pet-- accidentally but they don't see it that way) and they decided to go their separate ways, but it was everyone against the one person, so now I have 5 people in one group and 1 person in the other.
How should I run sessions with them to make everyone feel included and not have 30 min of some people just listening to someone else's story? (We do sessions online through Roll20 and I try to keep it engaging because it can be easy to get distracted, especially when you are just listening to someone else do their thing unrelated to them).
Another issue is that the one player has ventured out far across the land, and is now a few weeks ahead of the others. I need some help for ideas of how I can get them back on the same timeline (and maybe working together).
This is an incredibly difficult problem. A fairly equal split is fine for a few sessions, but when it's all the party except one, it's a bit of a problem. At that point, I would see if the solo player would be willing to do things outside of the session and work with them through the week, and then invite them (but not expect them to show up) for the "party session". I would also work on bringing the characters back together with plot reasons, but yeah. As for the timeline, you're kind of screwed there. I would just ask the player if it's okay to retcon that some of that progress is still going on, because it messes with the timeline. Often, players will be understanding, if not, well, good luck.
The solution, unfortunately, is to just not run anything for the solo player. It’s absolutely unfair to ask five people to sit around on their hands while you run a solo adventure for the character who screwed them over. If the situation really is so bad that the five characters who are together absolutely will not work with the other one, the solution is for that player to create a new character. That’s the only fair thing to do.
That said, I doubt the situation really is that bad. If you explain out-of-character, I’m sure everyone can agree to some scene where the solo character apologizes and makes it up to the others somehow, and the rest forgive them. If that’s impossible though, congrats on having players so willing to commit to character motivations (sincerely, that’s great), but return to the first paragraph of this post to see how to resolve it.
Obvious first step: talk to your players. Are the players mad at each other, or just the characters?
Assuming it’s just the characters, and the players are interested in playing out this drama, don’t do what you suggested and have the other players sit around while the single player plays out their story. Do that in a separate session. Allow the single player to listen in on the group sessions if they want to.
I have been on both ends of this, as a player and a DM. As a player my character wanted a solo side adventure. During this time I texted with the DM for most of my character’s activities. Occasionally we met for live one-on-one sessions. At the same time, I took over playing my character’s follower, who stayed with the party, as a full PC. The saddest thing was my party almost forgot about my main character. When I sent them a message signed with my character’s initial, they were like, “Who do we know with the initial T?”
As a DM, I had the rogue want to quit the campaign, and when he left he stole the MacGuffin. The party pursued him. I was going to have him get away, but then he decided he wanted to rejoin the game. The trick here involved a little subtle railroading to get the party, who were on the wrong track, to get on the right track and find him.
There is an unwritten rule of D&D of "don't split the party" for this very reason. While the PCs might want to split up as you mentioned it is no fun for the players to oberve half the time (or 2/3 ofthe time if you have 3 groups)
You probably wanrt to have an OOC session to discuss the situation the main rule is for all the player to have fun and party members splitting off from the rest of the group is generally not consisternt with this.
Your options are really get them back together (as quickly as possible) or retire their characters have have them join the party with a new character
In the first case it appear the party have no intention of getting back with the other player so I would ask the player who is on his own if he minds making a new character, he he does notr want this bring the situation to the group (out of character) to see if they could regret their decision and get back together.
For the player who ventured off and is a few weeks ahead of the rest of the party you could just waive the journey of the rest of the party to the far land (or have an NPC teleport them there). I do not know if the party are likely to go in a completely different direction so this is another reason for an OOC session.
There is an unwritten rule of D&D of "don't split the party" for this very reason. While the PCs might want to split up as you mentioned it is no fun for the players to oberve half the time (or 2/3 ofthe time if you have 3 groups)
Yeah, this is one of the scenarios where metagaming is good. “My character would be petulant and leave the party,” is not a good enough reason, because it causes difficulty and diverts the focus from the kind of challenges the players find fun.
That said, splits do happen, for good and bad reasons. I had a player get captured by guards while the rest of the party escaped. It wasn’t my plan, but things went off the rails. I think it’s best to find a narrative way back, although if you really didn’t want to, you could agree to rewind and pretend it didn’t happen. (It was all a dream, maybe.)
The solution, unfortunately, is to just not run anything for the solo player. It’s absolutely unfair to ask five people to sit around on their hands while you run a solo adventure for the character who screwed them over. If the situation really is so bad that the five characters who are together absolutely will not work with the other one, the solution is for that player to create a new character. That’s the only fair thing to do.
That said, I doubt the situation really is that bad. If you explain out-of-character, I’m sure everyone can agree to some scene where the solo character apologizes and makes it up to the others somehow, and the rest forgive them. If that’s impossible though, congrats on having players so willing to commit to character motivations (sincerely, that’s great), but return to the first paragraph of this post to see how to resolve it.
This. If you want to keep them apart for a while, maybe run the solo player via email until they all catch up together. Or if you want to keep them together just say something like: “Solo player has arrived and is sitting there for a couple days until the rest of the party arrives. In game, a week has passed and your characters have all had time to cool off. Is there anything any of you would like to say to each other? Keep in mind this is a game, and we need to be practical.”
Also, I am with the majority in saying you should not have all the other players sit around while one person has scenes only for that character.
However, I also do not necessarily advise doing separate sessions for that player, unless you REALLY have time for it. Running twice per time interval (week, month, whatever) is going to be harder on you than it might at first seem. I wouldn't be able to do it long term. I did it once, planned, with one player -- but I could not do it for multiple sessions.
So talk with the players OOC and see if you can work out a plan out of game for how the character who got voted off the island can come back. Maybe he follows them at a distance and saves their lives or something, and they let him back in.
What are people's thoughts devoting a proportionate amount of time to both groups during the split? For example, OP's table would they would spend 10 minutes with the one player for every 50 minutes is with the larger group (at least until the one player is brought back into the loop).
What are people's thoughts devoting a proportionate amount of time to both groups during the split? For example, OP's table would they would spend 10 minutes with the one player for every 50 minutes is with the larger group (at least until the one player is brought back into the loop).
You can't get a lot done in 10 minutes. If you instead say over a 3 hour game session that you spend a solid 30 minutes on just one PC, then that is a long time for the other players to be sitting around doing nothing.
Also, keeping two separate groups going is causing more work for the DM, since he will have to handle both plot lines as well as the provisional additional material if either party veers off the main plot.
What are people's thoughts devoting a proportionate amount of time to both groups during the split? For example, OP's table would they would spend 10 minutes with the one player for every 50 minutes is with the larger group (at least until the one player is brought back into the loop).
This is not a good idea. It will lead to a disjointed, jarring session. It's much better not to split up the party.
Talk with the players. Explain that you are not going to DM a split party, and they need to get back together. How they do it is up to them but they must do it. Split parties are a non-starter.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
What are people's thoughts devoting a proportionate amount of time to both groups during the split? For example, OP's table would they would spend 10 minutes with the one player for every 50 minutes is with the larger group (at least until the one player is brought back into the loop).
This is not a good idea. It will lead to a disjointed, jarring session. It's much better not to split up the party.
Talk with the players. Explain that you are not going to DM a split party, and they need to get back together. How they do it is up to them but they must do it. Split parties are a non-starter.
I mean, yes, getting the party back together should be your goal. But any way that gets your there that works for your table is fine. If your 1 player doesn’t mind doing nothing for 50 minutes and your N - 1 players don’t mind doing nothing for 10 minutes, go for it.
I recently had a session where one PC ran off. Next session another PC got separated. Next session another one chickened out about following into a dangerous situation and also got separated. My five-member party was down to two. It was a train wreck until I started (gently) railroading. In reverse order that they left, I started reuniting them. I kept the inactive players interested by playing one-on-one sessions occasionally. But I’m glad I gave them the agency to get so far off the rails.
I'm kinda stuck on what to say because I can't tell if it's Players hating player or characters hating characters.
If it's players hating on player, that's a nightmare. You need to round everyone up, get them on the same page by telling them that it's time to forgive and forget. And move on.
If B: A sneaky way would be to have Hansolo receive a letter or item for one or more of the characters by NPCAmazon mail dude, which the NPC fully believing that Hansolo will get it to his party. It could be LITERALLY ANYTHING. (but probably not some sick armor/item that Hansolo could run off with) Heck, it could be some sappy well-wish letter from Party member XY's mother saying how proud she is that her daughter found such (understanding) people to stay by her side through thick and thin and blah blah blah. You get what I mean.
Bottom line: GUILT TRIP the player/character in RP. Not RL though cause that will never end well.
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In my last session, the PCs had a bit of a falling out (5 of the PCs were mad because the other player killed the party's clockwork pet-- accidentally but they don't see it that way) and they decided to go their separate ways, but it was everyone against the one person, so now I have 5 people in one group and 1 person in the other.
How should I run sessions with them to make everyone feel included and not have 30 min of some people just listening to someone else's story? (We do sessions online through Roll20 and I try to keep it engaging because it can be easy to get distracted, especially when you are just listening to someone else do their thing unrelated to them).
Another issue is that the one player has ventured out far across the land, and is now a few weeks ahead of the others. I need some help for ideas of how I can get them back on the same timeline (and maybe working together).
This is an incredibly difficult problem. A fairly equal split is fine for a few sessions, but when it's all the party except one, it's a bit of a problem. At that point, I would see if the solo player would be willing to do things outside of the session and work with them through the week, and then invite them (but not expect them to show up) for the "party session". I would also work on bringing the characters back together with plot reasons, but yeah. As for the timeline, you're kind of screwed there. I would just ask the player if it's okay to retcon that some of that progress is still going on, because it messes with the timeline. Often, players will be understanding, if not, well, good luck.
The solution, unfortunately, is to just not run anything for the solo player. It’s absolutely unfair to ask five people to sit around on their hands while you run a solo adventure for the character who screwed them over. If the situation really is so bad that the five characters who are together absolutely will not work with the other one, the solution is for that player to create a new character. That’s the only fair thing to do.
That said, I doubt the situation really is that bad. If you explain out-of-character, I’m sure everyone can agree to some scene where the solo character apologizes and makes it up to the others somehow, and the rest forgive them. If that’s impossible though, congrats on having players so willing to commit to character motivations (sincerely, that’s great), but return to the first paragraph of this post to see how to resolve it.
Obvious first step: talk to your players. Are the players mad at each other, or just the characters?
Assuming it’s just the characters, and the players are interested in playing out this drama, don’t do what you suggested and have the other players sit around while the single player plays out their story. Do that in a separate session. Allow the single player to listen in on the group sessions if they want to.
I have been on both ends of this, as a player and a DM. As a player my character wanted a solo side adventure. During this time I texted with the DM for most of my character’s activities. Occasionally we met for live one-on-one sessions. At the same time, I took over playing my character’s follower, who stayed with the party, as a full PC. The saddest thing was my party almost forgot about my main character. When I sent them a message signed with my character’s initial, they were like, “Who do we know with the initial T?”
As a DM, I had the rogue want to quit the campaign, and when he left he stole the MacGuffin. The party pursued him. I was going to have him get away, but then he decided he wanted to rejoin the game. The trick here involved a little subtle railroading to get the party, who were on the wrong track, to get on the right track and find him.
There is an unwritten rule of D&D of "don't split the party" for this very reason. While the PCs might want to split up as you mentioned it is no fun for the players to oberve half the time (or 2/3 ofthe time if you have 3 groups)
You probably wanrt to have an OOC session to discuss the situation the main rule is for all the player to have fun and party members splitting off from the rest of the group is generally not consisternt with this.
Your options are really get them back together (as quickly as possible) or retire their characters have have them join the party with a new character
In the first case it appear the party have no intention of getting back with the other player so I would ask the player who is on his own if he minds making a new character, he he does notr want this bring the situation to the group (out of character) to see if they could regret their decision and get back together.
For the player who ventured off and is a few weeks ahead of the rest of the party you could just waive the journey of the rest of the party to the far land (or have an NPC teleport them there). I do not know if the party are likely to go in a completely different direction so this is another reason for an OOC session.
Yeah, this is one of the scenarios where metagaming is good. “My character would be petulant and leave the party,” is not a good enough reason, because it causes difficulty and diverts the focus from the kind of challenges the players find fun.
That said, splits do happen, for good and bad reasons. I had a player get captured by guards while the rest of the party escaped. It wasn’t my plan, but things went off the rails. I think it’s best to find a narrative way back, although if you really didn’t want to, you could agree to rewind and pretend it didn’t happen. (It was all a dream, maybe.)
This.
If you want to keep them apart for a while, maybe run the solo player via email until they all catch up together.
Or if you want to keep them together just say something like: “Solo player has arrived and is sitting there for a couple days until the rest of the party arrives. In game, a week has passed and your characters have all had time to cool off. Is there anything any of you would like to say to each other? Keep in mind this is a game, and we need to be practical.”
Definitely work this out OOC first.
Also, I am with the majority in saying you should not have all the other players sit around while one person has scenes only for that character.
However, I also do not necessarily advise doing separate sessions for that player, unless you REALLY have time for it. Running twice per time interval (week, month, whatever) is going to be harder on you than it might at first seem. I wouldn't be able to do it long term. I did it once, planned, with one player -- but I could not do it for multiple sessions.
So talk with the players OOC and see if you can work out a plan out of game for how the character who got voted off the island can come back. Maybe he follows them at a distance and saves their lives or something, and they let him back in.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thanks for all the ideas on how to bring them back together, they will definitely help! :D
What are people's thoughts devoting a proportionate amount of time to both groups during the split? For example, OP's table would they would spend 10 minutes with the one player for every 50 minutes is with the larger group (at least until the one player is brought back into the loop).
You can't get a lot done in 10 minutes. If you instead say over a 3 hour game session that you spend a solid 30 minutes on just one PC, then that is a long time for the other players to be sitting around doing nothing.
Also, keeping two separate groups going is causing more work for the DM, since he will have to handle both plot lines as well as the provisional additional material if either party veers off the main plot.
This is not a good idea. It will lead to a disjointed, jarring session. It's much better not to split up the party.
Talk with the players. Explain that you are not going to DM a split party, and they need to get back together. How they do it is up to them but they must do it. Split parties are a non-starter.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I mean, yes, getting the party back together should be your goal. But any way that gets your there that works for your table is fine. If your 1 player doesn’t mind doing nothing for 50 minutes and your N - 1 players don’t mind doing nothing for 10 minutes, go for it.
I recently had a session where one PC ran off. Next session another PC got separated. Next session another one chickened out about following into a dangerous situation and also got separated. My five-member party was down to two. It was a train wreck until I started (gently) railroading. In reverse order that they left, I started reuniting them. I kept the inactive players interested by playing one-on-one sessions occasionally. But I’m glad I gave them the agency to get so far off the rails.
I'm kinda stuck on what to say because I can't tell if it's Players hating player or characters hating characters.
If it's players hating on player, that's a nightmare. You need to round everyone up, get them on the same page by telling them that it's time to forgive and forget. And move on.
If B: A sneaky way would be to have Hansolo receive a letter or item for one or more of the characters by NPCAmazon mail dude, which the NPC fully believing that Hansolo will get it to his party. It could be LITERALLY ANYTHING. (but probably not some sick armor/item that Hansolo could run off with) Heck, it could be some sappy well-wish letter from Party member XY's mother saying how proud she is that her daughter found such (understanding) people to stay by her side through thick and thin and blah blah blah. You get what I mean.
Bottom line: GUILT TRIP the player/character in RP. Not RL though cause that will never end well.